30 September 1950 – The International Astronautical Federation (IAF) was founded in 1951, when scientists from the field of space research gathered in an attempt to ensure a constant dialogue between the space nations, regardless of political turmoil. In its early years, the Federation and its annual International Astronautical Congresses – better known as the
On June 21, Jim Kasler was invited to lead the mission against the POL storage facilities at Hanoi, much to his surprise, and to the discomfort of Colonel William H. Holt, the commander of 335th Tactical Fighter Wing, who otherwise would have led the large raid. The briefing focused on the weather to be clear and winds to be light and variable, which are both perfect for fighter operations. Both wings, the 355th and the 338th Tactical Fighter Wing, would approach the target from the south, to minimize the chances of a bomb ending up in the city of Hanoi. Each plane carried eight 750-pound bombs.
F-105D at Takhli RTAFB
Take-off weight 51,000 pounds, near maximum for the F-105. Kasler rolled down the runway and lifted off at 235 knots. Airborne, he headed north for the rendezvous with the aerial tankers. They refueled uneventfully and were three minutes ahead of schedule. Kasler led the Thuds in a circle to kill the 180 seconds. Twenty minutes later, they were over the Red River and Kasler began to lose altitude, until they were 300 feet off the ground, at the base of “Thud Ridge,” the landmark mountain range that ran east-west across North Vietnam’s mid-section.
As they dropped tanks, they could see smoke rising up from the POL tanks, already hit by U.S Navy jets. Flak blossomed all around them, even at 300 feet. The NVA gunners had their 85mm and 100mm pieces at zero elevation. Amidst the smoke from the target and puffs of anti-aircraft fire, Kasler called for afterburners and went into his bomb run. Big fat oil tanks filled he dropped his bombs and rolled away to the right. Turning back, he saw the fuel tanks erupting into huge billowing fireballs, thousands of feet high.
His flight crossed the Red River and the flak gunners switched to fighter-bombers behind him. Flying west, looking for targets of opportunity, he found a convoy of twenty-five trucks. The Thunderchiefs shot at them with 20mm cannon fire, destroying at least half of them. He glanced back at Hanoi, now 35 miles behind. A pillar of black smoke towered up, over six miles high.
The Hanoi POL strike was very successful. Over 90 percent of the facility was destroyed and the Vietnamese abandoned it altogether. For leading this mission Kasler earned his first Air Force Cross. By August 1966, an article in Time Magazine labeled him “the hottest pilot” in Vietnam and his wingmates called him “a one-man Air Force”.
Prisoner of War
While flying F-105D-31-RE Thunderchief 62-4343 on his 91st combat mission on August 8, 1966, Kasler was awarded a second Air Force Cross as leader of a formation that was evaluating low-level delivery against a priority target. When his wingman was hit and ejected, Major Kasler located the downed pilot, flew cover at low altitude until his fuel was almost gone, rendezvous with a tanker, and returned to direct rescue operations. Flying at treetop level in an attempt to relocate his wingman, Kasler’s F-105 was disabled by ground fire. He ejected, was captured and singled out for special attention by his captors and tortured repeatedly to get him to cooperate with their propaganda efforts.
Hỏa Lò Prison
For more than a month in 1967, Kasler was the target of nearly continuous daily torture. He received his third award of the Air Force Cross for resisting torture inflicted on him over a two-month period during the summer of 1968 in an attempt to coerce his cooperation with visiting anti-war delegations and propaganda filmmakers.
Kasler described his worst treatment:
“My worst session of torture began in late June 1968. The Vietnamese were attempting to force me to meet a delegation and appear before TV cameras on the occasion of the supposed 3,000th American airplane shot down over North Vietnam. I couldn’t say the things they were trying to force me to say. I was tortured for six weeks. I went through the ropes and irons ten times. I was denied sleep for five days and during three of these was beaten every hour on the hour with a fan belt. During the entire period I was on a starvation diet. I was very sick during this period. I had contracted osteomyelitis in early 1967 and had a massive bone infection in my right leg. They would wrap my leg before each torture session so I wouldn’t get pus or blood all over the floor of the interrogation room. During this time they beat my face to a pulp. I couldn’t get my teeth apart for five days. My ear drum was ruptured, one of my ribs broken and the pin in my right leg was broken loose and driven up into my hip.”
At one point, during the fall of 1967, Kasler’s captors took his clothes and his mosquito net. For three days, they denied him food and water and they beat his back and buttocks with a truck fan belt, every hour on the hour, 6 a.m. until 10 or 11 p.m. His torturer asked if he surrendered. Kasler finally gasped yes.
The guard nicknamed “Fidel” by the POWs returned to Kasler’s cell the next day and demanded that he surrender. Kasler refused and the beatings resumed and continued for another two days. Kasler suffered a fractured rib, a ruptured eardrum and broken teeth. He was left with the skin hanging off his rear end down to the floor. His face was so swollen, it hung like a bag, his eyes almost shut. Kasler’s mangled and infected leg, which tormented him throughout his captivity and for years afterward, swelled to the point he feared it would explode.
Kasler shared the infamous Room 7 of the “Hanoi Hilton” with other POW’s like Robinson Risner, James Stockdale, Bud Day, John McCain, Lawrence Guarino, and Jeremiah Denton. Like his fellow prisoners, he never cooperated with the North Vietnamese.
He was finally released on March 4, 1973, during Operation Homecoming, after spending 2,401 days in captivity.
After Release
Following his return to the United States, he was briefly hospitalized to recover from his injuries at Wright Patterson Air Force Base and then attended Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base from August 1973 to July 1974. Kasler’s final assignment was as an F-111 Aardvark pilot and Vice Commander of the 366th Tactical Fighter Wing at Mountain Home Air Force Base from August 1974 until his retirement from the Air Force on May 1, 1975, at the rank of Colonel.
Distinguished Flying Cross with Valor Device, 1 Silver and 2 Bronze Oak Leaf Clusters
Distinguished Flying Cross (2)
Bronze Star with Valor Device and Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster
Purple Heart with Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster
Air Medal with 2 Silver Oak Leaf Clusters
Air Force Commendation Medal with 2 Bronze Oak Leaf Clusters
Presidential Unit Citation with 2 Bronze Oak Leaf Clusters
Air Force Outstanding Unit Award with Valor Device and 2 Bronze Oak Leaf Clusters
Prisoner of War Medal
Combat Readiness Award
Army Good Conduct Medal
American Campaign Medal
Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with 2 Bronze Campaign Stars
World War II Victory Medal
National Defense Service Medal with Bronze Service Star
Korean Service Medal with 2 Bronze Campaign Stars
Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal
Vietnam Service Medal with 3 Silver and 1 Bronze Campaign Stars
Air Force Longevity Service Award with 1 Silver and 2 Bronze Oak Leaf Clusters
Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon
Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation
Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross
United Nations Service Medal for Korea
Vietnam Campaign Medal
Korean War Service Medal
Command Pilot Badge
Flight Info
F-84
F-86 E
F-100
F-105
F-111
Military & Civilian Education
Military Education:
1/1950 Pilot Training, F-84
1950/1951 Combat Crew Training F-84
8/1973-7/1984 Air War College, Maxwell AFB
Civilian Education:
Butler University
1963 BA, University of Omaha
James H.Kasler, Col USAF, Ret., “Headed West” on April 24, 2014.
Col. James H. Kasler, the only person to be awarded the Air Force Cross three times and a man who spent nearly seven years in a North Vietnam prison camp during the Vietnam War, died Thursday in Florida.
Kasler, 87, was a longtime resident of Momence and developed and owned the South Shore Golf Course in Momence. He sold the golf course a few years ago.
A combat veteran of three wars — World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War — Kasler was a fighter pilot and was recognized as an ace. He flew a combined 198 combat missions and was a prisoner of war from August 1966 until March 1973.
“He was one of the greatest of the Greatest Generation. His generation was the one that produced extraordinary people. He was one of them,” said his son, James.
“He believed in family, God and American — firmly,” his son said.
Kasler earned 76 awards for valor and service. In addition to the three awards of the Air Force Cross, Kasler was decorated twice with the Silver Star, a Legion of Merit, nine awards of the Distinguished Flying Cross, two Bronze Star Medals, two Purple Hearts and 11 awards of the Air Medal.
“He was a patriot who truly loved his country,” said Brig. Gen. Jack Kotter, of Bourbonnais. “As a former prisoner of war, he will be the recipient of a military fly-over at his funeral. He certainly earned it.”
Bill Cotter, of Momence, was a friend and one of the organizers who developed the Kasler-Momence Memorial Park on the grounds of Momence Junior High School.
“Col. Kasler was a true American hero. He was a humble man who never expected to be honored,” he said. “He wasn’t born here, but he came to love this town and the people here loved him.”Cotter noted that the Kankakee area will always have a reminder of Kasler and what he endured as a prisoner in Vietnam. He said Kasler found peace amid his abuse by designing a golf course in his mind. When he returned to America, he developed South Shore Golf Course.
His experiences were compiled in “Tempered Steel,” a book published in 2005. Among his peacetime activities, he served locally at the Riverside Medical Center Foundation, Momence Township Board and Municipal Trust & Savings Bank of Bourbonnais. Cathy Boicken, Municipal bank president, described Kasler as the “most loyal, honest person” that someone could ever find.”If he didn’t agree about something, he let you know. There was not a lot of gray area with Jim,” Boicken said. She noted it was Kasler who prodded her to rise to the position she now holds. She added that she was a loan secretary at the bank back in 1980 when Kasler said she could be much more. “He said ‘I know people. and you can do this,’” she said.
Gen. Kotter offered one final memory, he says he cannot forget.”I talked to him at our Vintage Squadron meetings, and we played golf together,” he said. “But I learned something from a documentary where he was interviewed about his time in B-29s.”The interviewer asked him if he was scared of anything, and he said no. But then he thought about it and admitted that he was afraid of one thing: Heights. He said he went up the Eiffel Tower and couldn’t walk out to the railing.”Imagine the courage of a man afraid of heights, as a fighter pilot,” Kotter said.
He is survived by his wife of 65 years Martha Lee Kasler and their three children, James F. Kasler of Pensacola, FL, Suzanne Kasler Morris and her Husband John Morris of Atlanta, GA and Nanette Kasler of Carmel, IN. His grandchildren are James R., Jacqueline, Ryan, Ashley, Alexandra , and Kane . Colonel Kasler is also survived by his brother Tom Kasler, who resides in Scottsdale, Arizona.
A memorial service was held at the Centennial Chapel on the Olivet Nazarene University Campus on Sunday, May 4, 2014. James was interred at Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, IN.
In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting that donations be made to one of the following charities:
1. The James and Martha Kasler Scholarship Fund for Nursing Excellence at Riverside Hospital 350 N Wall St, Kankakee, IL 60901;
2. The Indiana War Memorial Foundation 431 N Meridian St, Indianapolis, IN 46204; the Salvation Army; Folds of Honor Foundation, 5800 N Patriot Drive, Owasso, OK 74055.
JAMES H. KASLER was a Korean War “Ace” flying the F-86 with 100 missions, and a USA Air Corp B-29 tailgunner in the Pacific Theater during WWII, flying 7 missions.
Captured: August 8, 1966
Released: March 4, 1973
“I was shot down over North Vietnam on 8 August 1966 while flying my 91st mission. I knew my internment would not be a pleasant one, but little did I imagine that we would be subjected to years of torture accompanied by constant pressure. It’s difficult to imagine the mental anguish that we went through, waiting in isolation for them to come after you and fearing that you would not be strong enough to resist being forced into taping or writing something which would harm our country or its cause.
During those early years we were kept in isolation so much of the time and denied anything with which to occupy our minds. We were never allowed to see or communicate with other prisoners and never allowed out of our cells except for an occasional bath.
The Vietnamese kept us in isolation and denied us anything to occupy our minds for a good reason; for when a man living under these conditions is subjected to any mental inputs or torture it remains vivid in his memory for months.
Brainwashing has been described as torture, fear, relief, and then repeated until the individual becomes receptive to and is willing to parrot anything he is told. Isolation, starvation and denial of sleep are used in conjunction with brainwashing to reduce individual’s resistance. The Vietnamese employed all of these techniques but they were crude and ruthless in their approach. They were impatient for results and when they were not forthcoming, they became even more ruthless.”
For days in late June 1968, Air Force Ace Major James Kasler was tortured by Fidel1. Fidel beat Kasler across the buttocks with a large truck fan belt until “he tore my rear end to shreds”.
“My worst session of torture began in late June 1968. The Vietnamese were attempting to force me to meet a delegation and appear before TV cameras on the occasion of the supposed 30000th American airplane ever North Vietnam. I couldn’t say the things they were trying to force me to say. I was tortured for six weeks. I went through the ropes and irons ten times. I was denied sleep for five days and during three of these was beaten every hour on the hour with a fan belt. During the entire period I was on a starvation diet. I was very sick during this period. I had contacted osteomyelitis in early 1967 and had a massive bone infection in my right leg.
They would wrap my leg before each torture session so I wouldn’t get pus or blood all over the floor of the interrogation room. During this time they beat my face to a pulp. I couldn’t get my teeth apart for five days. My ear drum was ruptured, one of my ribs broken and the pin in my right leg was broken loose and driven up into my hip.
I lay in agony for six months until I was given an operation in January of 1969.
I surrendered a number of times during this torture session but when they tried to get me to do something I would refuse. By the time they were finished with me I was in no condition to do anything.
Their purpose of course was to exploit the POW’s to try to force us to parrot their propaganda in tapes or letters to delegations which came to Hanoi. But our treatment in Hanoi only strengthened our resistence and our faith in our country and its cause in Southeast Asia.”
Robert Louis Stevenson once said, “Anyone can carry his burden, however hard until nightfall, anyone can do his work however hard for one day.” This was the pattern of our lives in Hanoi during those early years of terror. We lived to endure each day hoping that nightfall would bring us a few hours of relief. We could have easily compromised our beliefs and made our lives much easier by cooperating with the Vietnamese. But our goal was to return home with our honor. Some brave men did not survive those early years but those who did came home with dignity and pride.”
The Cuban torturers were given the names “Fidel” “Chico” and “Pancho”. They were part of a Cuban diplomatic contingent assigned to Hanoi’s Enemy Proselytizing Bureau, and were directly responsible for the murder and torture of a considerable number of American POWs. According to one CIA dispatch, the Cuban Program” was conducted at the Cuu Loc PW camp from August 1967 through July 1968.According to a DIA report, “the objective of the interrogators was to obtain the total submission of the prisoners….” However, this report may not have been entirely accurate. One intelligence source, who reportedly interviewed “Fidel” and other Cuban interrogators in Hanoi, claims they said that their real job was to act as gate-keepers for the Soviets, and helped select highly-skilled pilots and electronic warfare backseaters, who became “Moscow Bound”.
SOURCE: WE CAME HOME copyright 1977
Captain and Mrs. Frederic A Wyatt (USNR Ret), Barbara Powers Wyatt, Editor
P.O.W. Publications, 10250 Moorpark St., Toluca Lake, CA 91602
Text is reproduced as found in the original publication (including date and
spelling errors).
UPDATE – 09/95 by the P.O.W. NETWORK, Skidmore, MO
